Kane: 'Everyone has come back sharp'

Harry Kane has praised his fellow World Cup participants for the way they’ve started the season off the back of a shortened summer break.

England captain Harry was joined on the scoresheet in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Fulham by Three Lions team-mate Kieran Trippier and Lucas Moura as we made it six points out of six in the Premier League.

Goals from another England man, Dele Alli, and Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen in the opening-day 2-1 triumph at Newcastle meant four of the five goals we’ve scored so far have been scored by players who only returned to full-time training the week before the new campaign began, after making it all the way to the semi-finals of the World Cup in July.

That’s a fact that makes hard-working Harry very proud.

“It’s great to win two out of two, especially as we had a lot of players coming back late from the World Cup,” said our home-grown hitman.

“It was always going to be a tough job to start well but credit to everyone – everyone has come back sharp, everyone has come back ready, (we’ve had) two good games, two good wins and now we have to try to continue that.

“Personally, I’m fine and I feel good. I’m in the same boat as a lot of the other players. We all knew we’d have to come back ready to go pretty early and that’s what we’ve done.

“It’s part of football. You have to be physically ready all year round and that’s what we’ve done.”

Harry wrapped up our victory over Fulham at Wembley with his first Premier League goal in the month of August at the 15th attempt. Understandbly, he was pleased to lay that bogey to rest.

“It’s nice to get on the scoresheet, nice to know what it feels like to score in August!” he smiled. “It was a great game from the team, first and foremost. After Fulham got it back to 1-1, I thought we stepped up a gear and played well, creating chances. Thankfully we took a couple and deserved the result.”

Harry had seen a penalty shout waved away and struck a fine volley onto the crossbar before finally hitting the target following an excellent cutting run and assist from substitute Erik Lamela 13 minutes from time on Saturday.

Never one to get frustrated, he confirmed he was in his usual focused mindset in the build-up to his goal: “I’ve said all along, as a striker you have to be ready for the next chance. That’s what happened. As I’ve said before, whether or not I score, as long as I’m holding the ball up, bringing others into the play and switching the ball, that’s my job and that’s the most important thing. Thankfully I got a goal and all that talk about August can be put to bed. Now, the focus is on (Manchester) United next Monday.”